Epigenetics and the city: non‐parallel DNA methylation modifications across pairs of urban‐rural Great tit populations.

Type Article
Date 2022-01
Language English
Author(s) Caizergues Aude E1, Le Luyer JeremyORCID2, Grégoire Arnaud1, Szulkin Marta3, Senar Juan‐carlos4, Charmantier Anne1, Perrier Charles5
Affiliation(s) 1 : CEFE Univ Montpellier CNRS EPHE, IRD Montpellier, France
2 : Ifremer, IRD, Institut Louis‐Malardé, Univ Polynésie Française, EIO Taravao, Tahiti Polynésie, Française
3 : Centre of New Technologies, University of Warsaw S. Banacha 2c 02‐097 Warsaw, Poland
4 : Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona, Parc Ciutadella 08003 Barcelona ,Spain
5 : CBGP ,INRAe CIRAD, IRD, Montpellier SupAgro Univ. Montpellier Montpellier, France
Source Evolutionary Applications (1752-4571) (Wiley), 2022-01 , Vol. 15 , N. 1 , P. 149-165
DOI 10.1111/eva.13334
WOS© Times Cited 14
Keyword(s) adaptation, DNA methylation, epigenomics, genomics, urbanization
Abstract

Identifying the molecular mechanisms involved in rapid adaptation to novel environments and determining their predictability, are central questions in evolutionary biology and pressing issues due to rapid global changes. Complementary to genetic responses to selection, faster epigenetic variations such as modifications of DNA methylation may play a substantial role in rapid adaptation. In the context of rampant urbanization, joint examinations of genomic and epigenomic mechanisms are still lacking. Here, we investigated genomic (SNP) and epigenomic (CpG methylation) responses to urban life in a passerine bird, the Great tit (Parus major). To test whether urban evolution is predictable (i.e parallel) or involves mostly non-parallel molecular processes among cities, we analysed both SNP and CpG methylation variations across three distinct pairs of city and forest Great tit populations in Europe. Our analyses reveal a polygenic response to urban life, with both many genes putatively under weak divergent selection and multiple differentially methylated regions (DMRs) between forest and city great tits. DMRs mainly overlapped transcription start sites and promotor regions, suggesting their importance in modulating gene expression. Both genomic and epigenomic outliers were found in genomic regions enriched for genes with biological functions related to the nervous system, immunity, or behavioural, hormonal and stress responses. Interestingly, comparisons across the three pairs of city-forest populations suggested little parallelism in both genetic and epigenetic responses. Our results confirm, at both the genetic and epigenetic levels, hypotheses of polygenic and largely non-parallel mechanisms of rapid adaptation in novel environments such as urbanized areas.

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Caizergues Aude E, Le Luyer Jeremy, Grégoire Arnaud, Szulkin Marta, Senar Juan‐carlos, Charmantier Anne, Perrier Charles (2022). Epigenetics and the city: non‐parallel DNA methylation modifications across pairs of urban‐rural Great tit populations. Evolutionary Applications, 15(1), 149-165. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.13334 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00740/85191/